Step 1: Materials

For this instructable you will need:-Parachute Cord, also known as 550 cord because it is rated to 550 lbs. Usually sold in 100 foot and 1,000 foot lengths This is available at outfitting stores or online. I usually shop here http://www.brigadeqm.com/cgi-bin/tame.exe/store/level4c.tam?M5COPY.ctx=29433&M5.ctx=29433. The cord is very useful and should be included in any survival kit.- A sturdy place to secure the cord. A couple of friends holding the rope is great! lacking that tie to a couple posts/tree/etc.-Elbow grease, provide your own or use your social engineering skills to convince someone else to try it.

Step 2: Setup

1.Attach the cord to one or two points leaving plenty of slack between them. The more slack the better. 2.run another length of cord (which can be part of the cord leftover past the points if the cord is long enough) so that it lays over the cord that is hanging.3. take the second length of cord into each hand with plenty of slack.

Step 3: Cutting the 550 cord

Get a good grip on the second length of cord. By running the one cord over a single point on the first cord, the friction will melt the nylon and split it into two pieces. It helps to have more slack on the cord you are cutting so that you are only pulling on one point. This can also be done by wrapping the cord around your foot and stepping down if there aren't any anchor points available. I first learned this trick as a challenge. I was handed a piece and told to split it into two pieces without any metal object or a lighter. Challenge your friends, use it as a team building exercise, or use it the next time your stuck in the middle of nowhere and you have to cut a piece of cord.

A good reason to have paracord shoe strings. If you ever find your wrists bound with zipties undo several holes of your shoe string, enough to provide 2.5-3 feet of cord. Loop the end around the ziptie once then hold it tight in your teeth. Move your wrists up and down the paracord a few times and the ziptie will melt like butter.

This trick totally works to cut pvc pipe as well, although I would suggest nylon twine since it's thinner. That way you won't have to remove so much material. It's also a bit tricky to keep the string in one spot at the start. Picked that trick up from busting water lines and conduits in fence post holes. it's the easiest way to trim the pipe up without digging the hole out larger.

I used to be a plumber, and used this trick to cut PVC, inside walls where a sawblade would tear up too much. I highly recommend using cotton twine, as it'll generate better friction, and not risk melting plastic and plastic together.

You're thinking of situations where the cord melts all-at-once, like in a lighter flame. Here the heat builds up gradually, and by the time the last strands are melting, the first strands have long since cooled.

To answer your rhetorical question, yes. That's why I only consider this useful as a parlor trick (if you're cool and have paracord in your parlor) or if misfortune strikes in some unlikely survival situation.

If you have to cut several pieces of 550 cord and have an old soldering iron handy, you can put tension on the cord and just slice through it once the soldering iron gets hot. This way it cuts and seals the cord so it won't fray. Be careful not to let any drops of the hot nylon get on you because it really makes a nasty burn. I learned this by cutting 550 cord on a daily basis with my job in the Air Force. Hope this helps.

The point of this is to cut it without a knife or heating implement. A soldering iron falls under the latter, and would only really help if you were somewhere where you had access to an electrical outlet of some type.

I learned this technique back when I was feeding horses every day. You don't want to carry a knife into the haystack because it's easy to lose and there's always extra twine laying around so it's a good way to cut the baling twine on the hay bales.